May-June 2016

“I

f people know nothing else about how Southerners supposedly eat, they know

that bacon, barbecue, lard and ham are considered essential ingredients in the

South’s culinary repertoire. Some even know a smattering of the history —Spanish

and other European colonists bring hairy, spiky pigs — they get loose — they spread

— and with their robust strength, tusks, teeth and boar-like behavior thrust and parry

their way through a wilderness of cougars, bears and wolves. Even with predators

aplenty — through brute strength and human intervention the pigs came out on top —

leaving the South thick with a feral hog population to this day. Proto-Southern cuisine

amplified Old World pork eating habits until the pig was in everything — from start

to finish. Even today, from chopped bacon in salad to piecrust made with lard, it

somehow makes an appearance. It comes with red-eye gravy in the morning and

perhaps even with ice cream in the evening.”

—Michael Twitty, Culinary Historian